Xiaogang, Anhui

Xiaogang Village is a small village in Fengyang County, Anhui province in China, not far from Nanjing. China's move toward capitalism has been traced to an agreement among farmers in Xiaogang to illicitly subdivide their common farmland in December 1978, after which production of food increased dramatically. The village was held up as a model for capitalism by China's new leadership after Deng Xiaoping came to power.

History

During the Great Leap Forward, Fengyang County, along with much of the rest of the country, experienced a period of famine. A quarter of the county's population, 90,000 people, died of starvation. In Xiaogang village alone, 67 villagers died of starvation out of a population of 120 between 1958 and 1960.

In December 1978, eighteen of the local farmers, led by Yan (NPR's name is a typo, there is no YEN in Chinese romanization) Jingchang, met in the largest house in the village. They agreed to break the law at the time by signing a secret agreement to divide the land, local People's Commune, into family plots. Each plot was to be worked by an individual family who would turn over some of what they grew to the government and the collective whilst at the same time agreeing that they could keep the surplus for themselves. The villagers also agreed that should one of them be caught and sentenced to death that the other villagers would raise their children until they were eighteen years old. At the time, the villagers were worried that another famine might strike the village after a particularly bad harvest and more people might die of hunger.

Xiaogang, Anhui

Xiaogang Village is a small village in Fengyang County, Anhui province in China, not far from Nanjing. China's move toward capitalism has been traced to an agreement among farmers in Xiaogang to illicitly subdivide their common farmland in December 1978, after which production of food increased dramatically. The village was held up as a model for capitalism by China's new leadership after Deng Xiaoping came to power.

History

During the Great Leap Forward, Fengyang County, along with much of the rest of the country, experienced a period of famine. A quarter of the county's population, 90,000 people, died of starvation. In Xiaogang village alone, 67 villagers died of starvation out of a population of 120 between 1958 and 1960.

In December 1978, eighteen of the local farmers, led by Yan (NPR's name is a typo, there is no YEN in Chinese romanization) Jingchang, met in the largest house in the village. They agreed to break the law at the time by signing a secret agreement to divide the land, local People's Commune, into family plots. Each plot was to be worked by an individual family who would turn over some of what they grew to the government and the collective whilst at the same time agreeing that they could keep the surplus for themselves. The villagers also agreed that should one of them be caught and sentenced to death that the other villagers would raise their children until they were eighteen years old. At the time, the villagers were worried that another famine might strike the village after a particularly bad harvest and more people might die of hunger.

Latest News for: xiaogang village

Some of them had helped spur growth in rural China by reforming land rights or establishing village committees ... For instance, a representative of a group of farmers from Xiaogangvillage in Anhui province, who banded together to subvert the Maoist-era collective farming system, was among the honourees. ....

Pan, 37, is from XiaogangVillage in east China'sAnhui Province...Xiaogangvillage became well-known in 1978 after 18 of its farmers made a secret pact to resist the country's egalitarian agricultural system ... Anyone in Xiaogang can apply for an online space for free and receive free training....

The 83-year-old remembers the plot of each show that has been staged in his village... The tiny village of Kongwang, tucked away deep in the mountains of northern Shanxi Province, has just won a long anti-poverty battle ... "Our village is rich now ... One of the recent ones took them to the XiaogangVillage, the birthplace of rural reforms in 1978....

The 83-year-old remembers the plot of each show that has been staged in his village... The tiny village of Kongwang, tucked away deep in the mountains of northern Shanxi Province, has just won a long anti-poverty battle ... "Our village is rich now ... One of the recent ones took them to the XiaogangVillage, the birthplace of rural reforms in 1978....

4 (Xinhua) -- A documentary on XiaogangVillage, the birthplace of China's rural reform, was shown on China Central Television (CCTV) starting Monday night to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the country's reform and opening-up ...XiaogangVillage, which falls under jurisdiction of ......

Also in 1978, 18 farmers in Xiaogangvillage, Anhui province, risked their lives to sign a secret contract that divided farmland – then owned by the People's Commune – into pieces for each family to cultivate ... Before 1978, Xiaogangvillage was infamous for its poverty ... One year later, the villagers of Xiaogang had begun to enjoy a much better life....

This autumn is the sixth pear harvest for Huang Qingchang in Xiaogangvillage, Anhui province... Nowadays, more than 60 percent of the village's 10,000 hectares of arable land have been transferred by local villagers to businesses like Huang's, according to Li Jinzhu, the first Party secretary of Xiaogang....

XIAOGANG, Anhui, Oct ...Xiaogang is no ordinary village though, this place represents a turning point in China's modern history. Xiaogang is in Fengyang (phoenix) county ... By the autumn of 1978, Yan Hongchang had become Xiaogang's village leader ... At first glance, Xiaogang looks much like any other village in eastern China....